This story was recently published in Aj Michel's contributor-driven zine "Syndicate Product" (#15: Coming Clean!). If you would like a copy of "Syndicate Product" send $3 to: Aj Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050, USA or e-mail syndprod@gmail.comPS: Thanks to Aj for the title of the story!"Father Cleans Best"My father has some serious cleaning issues.As far back as I can remember, my father would wake up every Saturday morning around 7 am and spend 4 or 5 hours cleaning the entire house…See More

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Who am I?

I´m a Yank living in Spain. I self-publish two zines.

My perzine is called "EXTRANJERO" which means "foreigner" or "stranger" in Spanish. The zine is about my life in Spain with my Spanish partner. The first issue came out in Spring 2004 & the seventh issue came out of the photocopier in summer 2008. All back issues are long gone, but I still have a handful of issue #7. Drop me a line.

My other zine is a contributor-driven project called "Going Postal!". The purpose of "GP!" is to explore different aspects of zine & mail art history, to give active participants in these overlapping movements a place to voice their ideas & opinions, & to give me a new creative outlet to ensure that I don´t lose my sanity any time soon. The first issue includes writing & artwork by Christoph Meyer, Irving Stettner, Dale Speirs, Arthur Moyse, Peter Good, Dave Cunliffe, David Peers, John Held, Jr., Bob "Guinea Pig Zero" Helms, John Mountain, Vittore Baroni, Steve Bailey, Anita Michel, Ryosuke Cohen, Olaf Ladousse, Davida Gypsy Breier, Gianni Simone, Natali Belova, etc... The second issue is out now.

Both of my zines are available for "The Usual" which means a trade, a donation of stamps or cash, or (if you´re really down on your luck) an interesting letter. If you would like to obtain a copy of one of my zines contact me through this site & I´ll be more than happy to provide you with my postal address.

Almost forgot, I also send reviews of zines that I pick up on my own to Zine World (RIP) & Xerography Debt.

By 1975, when I was a first-year art student (majoring in graphic design & illustration) at Kent State University in Ohio, U.S.A., I already had eclectic tastes with regard to art, music and literature. I was restless and very unsure of myself, but of one thing I was certain: there weren´t any magazines around to really interest and engage me. Lonely, nerdy, odd, and fond of correspondence, I became a “mail artist”… Continue

I always see advertisements for zine distros in review zines, but I´ve never contacted any of them to see if they would be interested in carrying one of my zines. I prefer to know my readers one-on-one. That is, if somebody sees a review of my little publication they have to grab a pen & a sheet of paper, then sit down & write to me personally. I like that. I´m not all that interested in putting massive quantities… Continue

5 April: A lot of friends and family members are coming over tonight to say hello and get drunk and whatnot. So my mother, Lola and I go to the supermarket (after another big breakfast! – this time it was Southern biscuits and gravy). At the supermarket I get another unexpected shock. We don´t have much variety in Plasencia´s supermarkets. If we want to make something “special” - like Mexican or Japanese food - there is quite a bit of preparation that goes into finding what we need. (There is… Continue

3 April: After about 5 hours of sleep I´m wide awake & quietly get out of bed & walk out into the sunroom. The sun is just coming up over the horizon & I spot 3 deer grazing on some of the bushes in my parent´s back yard. My father is making a pot of coffee & telling me that the local deer have been wandering down into their yard &, much to my mother´s dismay, eating everything in sight.

“The god damned builders have ripped up 40 acres of forest down by Pheasant… Continue

2 April: We arrive at Philadelphia International Airport & approach the long lines of people waiting to go through the immigration check point. There is an angry Hispanic woman shouting in English & in Spanish, “U.S. citizens to the left! Non-U.S. citizens to the right! Ciudadanos de los Estados Unidos a la izquierda! Todos los otros a la derecha!” I wish Lola luck & give her a kiss as she heads over to the immigration line for drug dealers, terrorists & child molesters. When I… Continue

"Against and Among Institutions: Mail Art as a Subversive Medium" by John Held, Jr.

I know it’s wrong…but I’ve been waiting for some major American art institution to come along and ask me to assist in the production of their major exhibition of Mail Art. It’s not happening. I know that things like this don’t happen without effort on one’s own part, but it’s long overdue…and I keep waiting. For how much longer, I don’t know.

Anarchism, Self-publishing, and the Anti-Sleep League at Philadelphia: A memoir by Robert P. Helms from "Going Postal!" #1

When I remember my early years of involvement in anarchism, a wide range of images and feelings wander through my mind and across my skin. Starting in the summer of 1989, I started to explore the idea in places other than library stacks, mostly in Philadelphia. Between 1991 and around 2000, the circle to which I belonged maintained a capacity to publish… Continue

I´ve been seeing the name, and some of the writings of, Arthur Moyse in issues of Peter Good´s "The Cunningham Amendment" for a few years now. Then one day I received with a letter from Peter a page of artwork by Arthur from an old issue of "Anarchism Lancastrium". I liked it so much that I figured the best way to find out more about Arthur was to conduct a brief interview with Dr. Good (by post, of course). Peter was kind enough to pass my questions on to Dave Cunliffe and David Peers, two… Continue

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We invite you to take part in the First International Exhibition "ZINESHOW" in Ukraine. Participation is free. Any technique. Any theme and format. No return. Deadline: 15/04/2013. Exhibition on the blog http://zineshow.blogspot.com All works will be exhibited also in the gallery "tymutopiyapres" http://tymutopiyapres.blogspot.com is not a commercial gallery. Welcomed but not "necessarily" summary of your zine or about you or your creative work (this is necessary for further elucidation of the project and possible documentation). Zines for the exhibition please send air mail: "Zineshow" A/C 9875, Sadivnycha 19/1, 79038, Lviv, Ukraine.

I certainly appreciate it, Kris. I'm still in that "holy-moly-BatMan! Look at all these cool zines!" state in my zine hobby, so I'm constantly devouring about anything I can get my hands on. And likely later on I'll sort through the material I have collected and pass some of those along to others as you have--keeping the cycle moving along.